Our Lady of the Angels

According to tradition, on August 2, 1635, a young mixed-race woman named Juana Pereira was gathering firewood near Cartago, in the poor district where people of African and mixed descent lived, when she found a small statue of the Virgin holding the Child on a rock. She took it home, but the next day it was back on the rock, and the same thing happened again even after the image was taken to the parish church. People understood that Mary wished to be honored in that very place among the humble.

A chapel was built on the site, and today the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels stands there. The image, carved in dark stone and only a few inches tall, was affectionately named La Negrita. Because her feast fell on the day of the Franciscan Portiuncula, she received the title of Our Lady of the Angels. She was proclaimed patroness of Costa Rica in 1824 and was canonically crowned in 1926.

In the days before August 2, Costa Ricans make the Romería: hundreds of thousands walk to Cartago from every corner of the country, many through the night, and some cross the last stretch of the basilica on their knees. Pilgrims collect water from the spring beneath the rock where the image was found.

Costa Rican communities in the United States, including Miami, honor La Negrita with Masses, processions and the national anthem.